


warm

by busaikko



Category: Youkai Ningen Bem (TV 2011), 妖怪人間ベム
Genre: Blanket Fic, Gen, M/M, community: youkai_ningen promptmeme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-01
Updated: 2011-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-26 18:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/busaikko/pseuds/busaikko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natsume and Bem keep warm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	warm

"Do you need my jacket?" Bem asked carefully, as if he was reluctant to risk offending Natsume by hinting he wasn't able to deal with the cold.

They'd been locked in the back of the truck for three hours, Natsume figured. Bem had offered, with the same cautious, offhand awkwardness, to rip the door open, but Natsume needed to know where the truck was bound with its shipment of amphetamine. The driver was a low-level gangster; Natsume wanted his bosses.

He felt like an idiot for getting caught, though. He hadn't expected the anonymous tip he'd been following to pan out, and he'd left his own jacket – with his keitai and gloves and scarf – in the car with Tsuji. _I'll just be a minute_ , he'd said. Famous last words.

He'd been annoyed with Bem for trailing him, as if he couldn't be trusted to do his job right, and doubly annoyed when Bem turned out to be right. Natsume had spent the first hour sulking in silence, until the cold got too much to bear and he pulled the felt blanket off the boxes of drugs and wrapped up in it. He was still freezing, though. The truck was going slowly, and he could just imagine snow blowing across the highway as they headed north.

"I'm fine," Natsume said through clenched teeth.

"You're shaking. I can hear you," Bem said, and Natsume felt him shift closer in the dark. "Cold doesn't bother me."

"Earlier," Natsume started. "I didn't mean, I'm not angry with you. I was careless, and a police officer, we can't be careless."

"You'll need to be able to run when we get there," Bem said, very careful not to let his tone imply that Natsume was probably so stiff he'd topple over if he stood up.

"Right." Natsume sighed. "Do your worst."

He heard Bem go into action, the soft business-like sound of clothes being pulled off. Natsume thought about the last time he'd been naked with a man, and then was a little shocked by the direction his mind had wandered.

"Here," Bem said, and shoved his hat down onto Natsume's head. He had good aim; Natsume supposed maybe he could see in the dark. The hatband where it pressed against his ears and forehead was warm. Then, "Take these." Bem took Natsume's hand and pressed something soft into his palm. "Put them on."

By touch, Natsume figured out what he was holding, and couldn't help being amused. "We must be very good friends if now we're sharing socks." He pulled off one shoe and pulled Bem's sock on over his own, his stiff fingers making the job hard.

"Aren't we?" Bem said, and it sounded more like an earnest question than agreement.

Natsume reached out in the dark until his fingers found some part of Bem – his upper arm, he thought – and patted, the fake-feeling social touching that was habit now. "Yeah."

"Good," Bem said, and climbed over Natsume to shove some boxes out of the corner. "I'm glad." Natsume heard him settle in, and then Bem tugged at the dirty blanket. "Come here."

Natsume shuffled sideways, and Bem made quick work of rearranging the blanket around both of them. It was easiest to let Bem do everything; he seemed to have a plan that involved Natsume sitting between his legs, Bem's jacket over his chest and his back pressed close to Bem's chest, with the blanket tucked in around their feet.

"You feel like a _kotatsu_ ," Natsume said, warmth spreading across his skin.

Bem huffed a breath of laughter by Natsume's ear. "I said I wasn't cold."

"I should have believed you." Natsume reached down and found Bem's hands curled carefully at his sides. He tugged, this time with a plan of his own that involved getting both of Bem's hands spread over his stomach. "Oh, that's perfect. Like sticking a _kairo_ down inside a stomach-warmer, you know? Well. Maybe not." He leaned his head back on Bem's shoulder, careful not to crush the brim of the hat.

"Belo found a _kairo_ once," Bem said, and rubbed one hand in an absent arc over Natsume's shirt. "He burned himself with the benzine and Bela made him get rid of it."

"Modern throw-away ones react with air to heat up," Natsume said. "I guess they're wasteful, though. We Japanese used to be so clever about reusing stuff, because of the war, I guess. Now it's like all the old values are disappearing."

Bem leaned his head against Natsume's, and when he spoke he sounded like he was smiling. "When you don't talk a lot, I worry. Now you sound like normal."

Natsume covered one of Bem's hands with his own. The darkness made it easier. "You worried, huh?"

"You're the only friend I've had who knows what I am. What would I do if you froze to death?"

"Don't talk about yourself like that." Natsume gave Bem's hand a squeeze. "You're a good person."

Bem made a disagreeing noise and laced their fingers together. "Bela says I'm an idiot."

" _Maa_." Natsume pressed back a little harder. After a moment, Bem's arms tightened in response. "You can be the pretty one, I'll be the smart one, we'll be like a comedy act on TV."

"What a great favor you do me," Bem said, a perfect mimic of Bela at her most threateningly sarcastic. And then he ruined the effect by yawning so hard Natsume heard his jaw pop.

"Get some sleep." Natsume raised his free hand and brushed lightly at the hair over Bem's ear. He hadn't known Bem had wrapped his scarf over his head; Natsume let his fingers trace the edge to where the scarf covered one of Bem's horns. He suspected it looked ridiculous, like Bem was gearing up for New Years' house-cleaning, but he didn't say anything, just went back to stroking Bem's hair.

Bem's breathing slowed after a while, and his head grew heavier. Natsume was fairly sure he was down for the count when Bem turned his face into his neck and mumbled, "This is like how I imagine falling in love feels."

Natsume wanted to go back in time and punch in the face everyone who'd ever looked at Bem and screamed, including himself. Instead, he kept his hand where it was and said, as gently as he could, "You can keep falling in love until we get there and have to kick the bad guys' asses."

Bem didn't say anything to that, but his breath was warm on Natsume's skin. Natsume leaned his head back and kept an eye on the door. Anyone trying to get to Bem would have to go through him first, he thought resolutely, and listened to the cold wind rattle the truck as it drove into the night.


End file.
